Crusoe Gongbay, New Mexico football player and Rockville native, arrested in connection with rape case

By Kevin Lewis, ABC 7 News
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New Mexico's Crusoe Gongbay (2) runs for a first down against Fresno State in the second half of a game last November. The 20-year-old Rockville native was arrested this week in connection with a rape case in New Mexico.

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(WJLA) - A Montgomery County native and running back for the University of New Mexico football team has reportedly been arrested in Albuquerque in connection with a reported rape.

Crusoe Gongbay, expected to be the starting running back for the Lobos as a senior this fall, has been charged with two counts of second-degree criminal sexual penetration, one count of kidnapping and one count of conspiracy.

Gongbay may be a standout on the football field, but police in New Mexico say that while Gongbay, Ryan Ruff, and a third man still at large attended a recent off-campus party, they coerced a female student into their car.

Gongbay allegedly groped and raped the young woman while Ruff drove them around campus. Ruff then reportedly pulled out a handgun and forced the girl to have sex with him, too.

One neighbor who watched Gongbay grow up in this modest Rockville home says:

"I think there was a perception that he didn't have the supervision that he possibly could have had. There were some conflicts in the home that people were aware of."

On Twitter, Gongbay describes himself as a “Division I student athlete who puts God first.” And after bonding out of jail on Tuesday, the star running back tweeted on April 22, 2014:

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Lol sometimes people just out here to get you when you got a future ahead of you.

— Crusoe Gongbay (@CrusoeGongbay)

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UNM head football coach Bob Davie is also talking – in a statement, he said:

“Due to the obvious serious nature of these charges, he [Gongbay] has been suspended indefinitely from our football team.”